This application relates to an apparatus and method for on-line, real-time dissolved gas analysis of transformer oil.
A high voltage transformer is one of the most important and expensive devices in the power industry. A single transformer failure can easily drive costs to more than 10 million dollars. Presently, high voltage transformers are monitored using on-line dissolved gas analysis (DAG) of transformer oil in conjunction with a transformer asset manager to diagnose faults occurred in transformers and prevent catastrophic failures.
Current dissolved gas analysis (DGA) methods extract dissolved gases out of the oil and measure the concentration of these gases in gaseous phase. While this method is in line with the IEEE guide on DGA for transformers, it is not convenient and cannot provide in-situ information.